Flowers 1928

Martiros Sarian made "Flowers" with paint on what looks like a square canvas sometime in the 20th century. Sarian builds the composition with these delicious slabs of color, which are not blended or fussed over; they feel really immediate. I love how he's got this real tension between representation and abstraction. Like, I know those are supposed to be flowers, but they're also just these great big daubs of pure color, red against yellow, purple against blue. The paint itself is pretty thick in places, and you can see the marks of the brush all over. Especially in that lower right corner; you can feel the hand of the artist, pushing the paint around, building up the surface, it's like he's sculpting with color. Sarian's work reminds me a little of Emil Nolde, with his bold color and simplified forms. But Sarian has his own thing going on, it's this really unique way of seeing and feeling the world. The beauty of art is that it doesn't need to make sense.